After immersing myself in predator ecology, preparing for “Sarah and the Wolf,” I found that I wasn’t ready to leave the topic. Daniel Quinn points to our culture’s practice of annihilating our competitors, as a key difference between us, all other human cultures, and the rest of creation. Looking more closely at these practices is horrifying. Barry Lopez’s book, Of Wolves and Men, brought the activities of the federal agency, Wildlife Services, to my attention. They began their mission of exterminating wolves back in 1914, and all but succeeded. Just a couple of weeks after I completed “Sarah and the Wolf” I learned that Humboldt County contracts with Wildlife Services, thanks to the work of Monte Merrick, co-director of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. He did a great job of raising the issue in the local media, and there was a pretty good showing of opposition at the Board of Supervisors meeting, but they renewed the contract anyway. I thought doing an educational radio show on Wildlife Services, that also looked at humane solutions to wildlife conflicts, could help grow public awareness. Also, my partner John Hardin decided he was ready to be done with his kmud radio show, the SHARC Report, which covered issues related to Ham radio and radio technology. I was full of ideas for shows about wild animals, wildlife ecology and ethology, and John decided that a collaboration was a great idea, at least if he could design the show to be challenging from an production standpoint. We put in our proposal, and the first show airs tomorrow, September 4, at 5 p.m. PST on www.kmud.org . This first episode of Wildlife Matters features our interview with Monte Merrick, speaking on Wildlife Services, as well as the humane solutions movement. I hope you’ll tune in.